EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

You guys are making me green with envy talking about cold weather. Its upper 70's here, will be 81 degrees Tues and will be 83 degrees by Wed.....good for the beach not for dog hunting and this is December!! I am beginning to think its going to stay summer all year long here........must be the "global warming" thing..... rolleyes

I went on a hunt 2 nights last week, it was a bust....I didn't hunt my Monkey dog as he just got his stitches out the day before this hunt. This was a 3 night hunt on 18,000 acres of state land that had not been legally hunted in a year. Should be lots of hogs and hogs that were not dog smart...right??

Wrong. They gave out 55 permits, each permit allowed 3 people and 3 dogs. Thats over 150 dogs and people in the woods at one time! Hunt was from about 5 PM until 2 AM. I hunted with two buddies and their dogs, I just took my Spur dog so I would have a dog in the hunt. We never had a bark and when we left at 1:15 AM the first night they had taken out 3 hogs......

Went back the 2nd night, it rained hard most of the time, so we rode around looking the place over. Turned the dogs out a few times, but nothing. Never saw much hog sign either. They checked  2 hogs that night.......so I didn't go back the 3rd night.

I hunted this place last year (they had two hunts in there last year) and we caught 11 the first hunt and they checked 30+ hogs out the first night. Big difference in a year........

I suspect the state has had someone trapping the hogs all year, they just "failed" to tell us that before we all paid $50 each for the permit................ ???

I feel ya mark. Went sunday morning to the kissimmee river, didnt even get on a hog.
Found a little bit of fresh rootin, dogs ran their arses off, no luck though.

We must be doing something wrong is all I can figure. The Pig Bomb documentary and the FWC tells us that wild hogs are taking over the world....... ;D

I can say that the places I hunt have seen a decrease in the hog populations the last several years...not an increase. But what do I know??? I have only hunted  9-10 months of the year for the past 30 years...surely the guys that made the Pig Bomb show are FAR more knowledgable about wild hogs than I will ever be!!! rolleyes

Yall need to come to Oklahoma! No permits needed and hogs everywhere! ;D

If we were to come to Oklahoma and bring these Fla cur dogs you would soon be out of wild hogs...thats why they are getting scarce in Fla................ ;D

Been in the low 20's here for 3 days and the wind is supposed to blow gusting near 65 mph today.
Send me some of that heat! Dogs won't even come out of the barrels to eat hardly. rolleyes

Mark, I think on alot of the state land hogs are starting to decrease and deer are increasing.
We killed 7 does on the river during doe week which is unheard of, and there was only 10 killed altogether that got recorded.
I dont know what is happening, but I dont like it!!!!!!.


And this heat is some BS, sweating in december is no bueno.

I know for a fact that a lot of trapping goes on during the summer on the water management lands. There is also an article in the Dec Woods & Water about them trapping and killing hogs at Avon Park. I can't understand why they don't allow more hunting on these "public" lands if the hogs are such a problem.

The only reason I can think of would be that they would need more game wardens to keep everything in check.

Isn't that what the GW gets paid (by us the taxpayers) to do??

I feel that the public should be given the opportunity to hunt the hogs and keep the population under control (if needed) on state lands instead of letting one giy go in, trap and sell the hogs and pocket the money.

After all, it IS public land and you or I "should" have as much right to the hogs as the trapper.....unfortunately the state tends to conveniently forget this........


You get any of the SWIFTMUD hunts this year? I have a couple more hopefully they will be better than the Starkey hunt was.

Well, I would like it to cool off some but I don't think I need it to get 11 degrees!! BRRRRRR   :o I would freeze my azz off if it got that cold, I am used to 80 degrees about 9 months of the year anymore!

We do have a cold front coming in this weekend, its going to be a low of 56 degrees and a high of 66 degrees later this week, they say. Maybe that will cool things off some here and keep the skeeters and redbugs off us.

No trees??? I have never been to Oklahoma, is it just short brush country??  We have lots of trees here and all kinds. Pines, oaks, cypress and maples in the swamps, plus palmettos, gallberries, Ti Ti, and more under the trees....gets pretty think in places.

No mark, I didnt apply for any of those hunts. The only thing I got was a seminole ranch quota this year.
Ive never really needed to hunt public land until this year, but my spots to go have been getting pretty scarce.

But I definitely agree with you, we should be able to hunt hogs year round instead of people trapping, it would make alot more sense.(unless i was the one with the contract ;)

The last parts has a lot of truth to it.  You can bank someone is getting their pockets lined somewhere.  I was a state trapper for a while.  I noticed if I did not break the bank on a bid, they did not take me serious.  High bids equal contracts.  Write that down.

I believe i'll make a note of that Josh

I actually was in negotiations with SWIFTMUD this summer about becoming a trapper. As I live in the north end of their territory that said they would give me roughly 100,000 acres (split up into several tracts ranging from 1,000 to 18,000 acres) up this way, to trap hogs from.
But the more questions I asked, the worse it got. NO dog hunting, traps had to be set with a SWIFTMUD employee who GPS'd where the traps were, you couldn't move a trap without them knowing and marking the new location. Hogs had to be killed, no hogs sold alive to any clubs or hunting preserves, if you took a guy to help you with the hogs, you had to have Workmans Comp insurance on him (paid out of your pocket).
Plus you had to pay for your fuel, corn, traps, etc. not to mention your time and wear on your vehicle. All for a dead hog you probably can't give away..........and for zero pay.

Just seemed like a losing proposition to me, so I passed on it. I told them if I could hunt the dogs , in addition to trapping, I would do it and they told me NO dogs period..........

That is South west water management right?
I know that South florida water management will let you dog hunt.

But that doesnt sound like it is worth it at all just to trap.

Yes, that was Southwest FWMD. I talked to people all the way up to the number two guy and still no dogs allowed. I don't want a dead wild hog...I want a live one with my dog hanging off its ear............. ;D

There is only one problem with your thoughts. It makes sense and would be a practical answer to their swine problem but govt. doesn't allow that kind of actions. :laugh: :laugh:

We are going to try starkey in feb.

I feel EVERYONE should register to vote and use that vote. There are some big elections coming up the next few years from state to national levels and WE need to make sure the government gets the message that THEY work for us, not the other way around........

Big govt has gotten completely out of hand and we need to draw back the reins some. Vote new people in, that stand for our beliefs, and don't yet have all the "connections" and special interest groups in DC and elsewhere to lead them astray.......

If we don't take back the Govt, they are going to take over OUR country without firing a shot........You guys want a whole Congress and House of Representatives of Obama clones???

Okay, I will get off my soapbox for a while........just pisses me off the way this country has become and where it is headed!

I feel your pain.  I drove from jersey to tallahasee hunted 8 hrs or more without seein any real sign.  Then hunted with john sun near kiss river and really didnt see much fresh sign.  Would have liked to hunt longer but had to get goin.  So we hit up some mangrove snapper fishin.  Got all the way back up to Va to 30 degree weather and saw a big boar hog cross the road in front of me.  Dropped the dogs had one hell of a race but never got it!  Who would have figured i would have driven 2000 miles around florida only to see my only hog of the week in VA 50 miles from the capital! 
Ben

Ben, we didnt catch anything after you left if that makes you feel any better. 
Found some real fresh sign probably 100 yards from where we parked the truck straight down the road.
There was some BIG tracks in it, Im really surprised we didnt get on one though, the dogs would wind, and go out a couple hundred yards, they probably did that 50 times.
They just didnt quite have the nose to get it figured out though.

Its all good man.  I had a good time takin a hike with the dogs somewhere new and meetin some new guys into dogs.  Ill be back by for sure man.  Its 30 degrees outside here and worse with the windchill! When the dogs finally come off the hog the other night in va they were cold as could be. 
Ben